But before I get into that, some updates!
I couldn't take the Woodworking Level 3 course because, unfortunately, it only runs on Saturdays and I have far too many responsiblities at home on the weekends to be gone all day for four Saturdays in a row. Instead, I signed up for Woodworking Level 2 again with the same instructor and a promise that I would get to work on a different project instead of building another scotch cabinet. (Much to the dismay of certain friends, who desperately covet the one I already built - including the contents!) It turns out that one of the people who was in the first two courses with me had decided to do the same thing, and so I had a familiar face or two when I got back into the shop the first week of March.
This time around I would be tackling a Shaker-style table, made from alder. Traditionally, these tables are made from cherry or maple, but alder is a lot cheaper, and quite a bit softer - read, more forgiving. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of my raw lumber, which is a shame because the entire table came from a single board (which is one of the coolest things about this hobby, I think).
Anyway, I was so engrossed in getting started and cutting and shaping the wood that I neglected to take any pictures at all until the second night. I had already cut the legs down to their square shape (they would take on the distinctive Shaker taper later), and the next step was to cut the mortises in the tops, using one of the funkiest jigs I had ever encountered:
It did a pretty good job, but like EVERYTHING I tried during this particular build, I need a LOT more practice at it.
It was during this part that I actually began to wonder about the complexity of the project. It seemed straightforward at first blush, but each of the legs needed to have the mortises cut in a slightly different way - needed a lot of concentration and triple-checking. Much, much more so than either of the first two projects.
Once the mortises were cut, I could form the tenons on the aprons; this was pretty much the only easy part, and that was because it was the same procedure as making the tenons for the rails in the last project.
Then I had to cut the pieces to go above and below the drawer on the front of the table and mark and drill for the dowel pins. (I messed this up very slightly, and I think it shows in the final product, sadly.) Once I had cut the taper on the legs (another high-concentration-required task!), I could start the first of the glue-ups. It's starting to look like a table! Or, like it might be a table some day.
I think that was five classes in at that point? Out of the nine alloted... Yeah, I was running short of time.
Anyway, I then moved on to doing the drawer. Actually, I had to spend almost and entire class making these, the runners for the drawer to ride on:
THEN I could start cutting and sizing the drawer front, sides, and back. My instructor really wanted me to try a dovetail jig he had found in a woodworking magazine, and I'm always up for being a guinea pig, er, up for an experiment. This is what that jig looks like in action:
It worked okay, but I cut a little too close to my lines (a common and repeated theme, I'm sorry to say) and it left my pins and tails a shade on the loose side. The rest of the dovetails were formed using a palm router and the old stand-by, a hammer and chisel.
And then I dry fit the drawer components and got a look at my first ever set of dovetails:
They're... okay. As I mentioned, they're a little loose, and I suppose for my first attempt, I should be happy. But more than anything, I just want to take another stab at them. I think dovetails are some of the prettiest details you can have in a woodworking project and I really, really, really want to get better at them.
And that's kind of where I ran out of time. I was frantically trying to get the bottom of the drawer cut down on the table saw at 10:00 on the last night of the class and forgot to put in a zero-clearance throat place and wowed out a big jeezley chunk of it and decided that I should probably just accept defeat and finish it at home, on my own time. Before I lost a body part in my haste or something.
Needless to say, I was disappointed that I couldn't finish the table, but as my instructor told me - AFTER THE END OF THE COURSE - that particular project is one of the ones that the Fine Woodworking class works on in their course. That lasts an entire semester. Three days a week. So yeah - not surprising I didn't get it done!
Fortunately, the generosity of certain Top Brass units, and a recent windfall in the form of getting a bonus from work, has allowed me to buy certain accessories to outfit the workshop a little more, and should help me finish the table at home.
Oh, and when I was looking for example of Shaker tables, I found the one on this page: http://www.owdman.co.uk/
Looks pretty similar, eh? Given what he's asking for that, I wonder if I should start taking offers for mine... ;o)
